Bush OKs bill to study Rim of the Valley expansion

Could quadruple size of Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area.

The president has signed off on a bill that could lead to expanding the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to include the Rim of the Valley Corridor - quadrupling the size of the recreation area.

President George W. Bush signed into law Thursday the Rim of the Valley Corridor Study Act, which will allow for a study to be conducted to determine the potential impact of expanding the nation's largest urban national park to include the Rim of the Valley Corridor.

The corridor consists of the mountains surrounding the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys, and the Santa Susana Mountains.

The measure by Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff of Pasadena was included in a wide-ranging public lands bill that President Bush signed on Thursday. The legislation was sponsored by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

This would eventually allow for the completion of the 150-mile long Rim of the Valley Trail, which would link four mountain ranges.

The study will look at adding 490,000 acres of public and private land along the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys to the 153,000-acre Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, which stretches about 50 miles along the Malibu coastline.